Ingo Swann - Out of Body Experiment

Out of Body Experiment

In 1972, in the American Society for Psychical Research Newsletter, Karlis Osis, director of research for the ASPR, described his personal controlled out-of-body experiment with Swann. The targets that Swann was to attempt to describe and illustrate were on a shelf two feet from the ceiling and several feet above Swann's head. Osis does not describe the height of the ceiling. Swann suggests, unclearly, the ceiling was 14 feet in height. The room was illuminated by two kitchen-style overhead fixtures. Swann sat alone in the chamber with wires from electrodes fastened to his head running through the wall behind him. Swann sat just beneath the target tray. He was given a clipboard to use for sketching. Any movement while drawing did not result in "artefacts" in the brain readout. Although his out-stretched hand might not have extended far enough to reach the suspended shelf, the clipboard that he used for sketching could have been employed as an extension. Perhaps with a mirror held by the clip at the high end, the lower end grasped by the fingers of his extended hand. In Swann's book To Kiss Earth Goodbye there is a photograph of the objects on the shelf. Swann wrote that he was aware of most of the objects on shelf above his head, but he did not know it held four numbers on a side. A side that would not have been visible if a reflecting surface had been angled near the end. Writing about this experiment master magician Milbourne Christopher asks the questions why were the target objects in the same room as the subject? Why were they so close to the subject? And finally, why wasn't an observer also in the room at the time of the experiment?

Psychological scales were developed for rating the quality and clarity (as subjectively described) by Swann of his OOB vision, which varied from time to time. The results were evaluated by blind judging. A psychologist, either Bonnie Preskari or Carole K. Silfen, was asked to match up Swann's responses without knowing which target they were meant for. She matched all the eight sessions. Osis stressed the odds about Swann being correct were forty thousand to one. There is no record of any experiments being performed in the dark.

Together, Silfen and Swann prepared an unofficial report of later out-of-body experiments and circulated it to 500 members of the ASPR, before the ASPR board was aware of it. According to Swann, Silfen has disappeared and cannot be located. He is searching for her and asks for your help. According to Swann, in April 1972 a move was made at the ASPR in New York to discredit him and throw him out because he was a Scientologist.